Recoding the Citizen-State Relationship
The state has always been in the business of knowing its citizens. With computational technology it’s just gotten significantly better at it. This was my thesis for the Political & Social Thought program at UVA, where I investigate this question of how the relationship between the state and citizen has changed via the lens of computational technology improvements.
What I did
My thesis strives to answer this question by considering the past, present, and future. The task requires an interdisciplinary approach: an understanding of political philosophy, public policy, economics, and even literature. As a result, readers must be prepared to understand computational technology’s effect on the citizen-state relationship through multiple lenses.
Technology and the state affect all aspects of human life. From this research, I conclude that computational technology has allowed the state to be more involved in citizens’ lives; however, how much the state should be involved is a question of individual preference.